Ponderings likely not worth reading… What is traveling without inane stories of airport mishaps? What is an appropriate way to answer the question when someone invariably asks, “how was your flight?” — do you want a flight to be anything but uneventful? It was not until I was on the plane leaving a gorgeous sunny day in Phoenix (typical spectacular views of the Superstition Wilderness Area, as well as Saguaro, Canyon, Apache, and Roosevelt Lakes) that I notice my flight to Raleigh included a layover at Dallas Fort Worth airport with about 55 minutes in between. Not good. I’ve had to do the dash from A39 to A1 barely making that on a sunny day. And DFW was dead center of thunderstorms. So no big surprise when we landed 40 minutes late. We taxi-ed right past my outgoing plane idling at gate C8 (they refused to let me hop out) [...]
CogBlogged from ‘March, 2007’
Adios to NIPSA Scarlet letter From Flickr (but wither simplicity?)
It’s been almost a year since I had a bone to pick with flickr regarding their less visibly known process of stamping accounts consisting of their definition of screenshots as NIPSA (Not In Public Service Area) (the whole story is serialized.) The issue for me was I had set up a pro account to house just images from Second Life, yet with this stigma, they never show up on searches or in public tag sets. NIPSA. I argued to no avail that the process of taking photos in a virtual world with a virtual camera, one that involved framing, lighting, composition, everything but freaking f-stops was far from a “screenshot”. So I shrugged my dog shoulders and moved on– we could still publish slide shows and syndicate images to our NMC Campus Observer site. But I got word, the rules are changing with some new features introduced on flickr called [...]
How Long is a “Moment?”
This “moment” on twitter has lasted at least a week: The ‘moment’ might be, “How long until out über cool technology is bought by Google/Rupert/Yahoo/Microsoft/….”? Pity the poor start up that cannot be munched for 1.65 billion. And pour me another ’57 Chevy.
Online Conference Conundrums
I’ve had a few days rest from the 2 day marathon of our NMC Online Conference on Convergence of Web Culture and Video — which had some phenomenal moments but also are leading me to some un-answered ponderings about these kids of events. Participation. First of all, I attended every session, but that’s because I am working it. I have some serious doubts about the ability for those who participate in an online conference from their workplace being really able to focus on the sessions completely. It’s not like being physically ‘trapped’ in a distance city- so the call of email, colleagues, meetings, projects, NCAA brackets, all compete for attention. Then again, should an online conference assume all are really fully present? Mode. Next, like most F2F conferences, the primary mode of activity is the “expert” led presentation session. One person talking and showing screens, and a room, group “consuming” [...]
Tubing For Teachers
Will 2007 be the year noted for the explosion of use for web video? Was it 2006? We just completed a 2 day conference on this at NMC, and I have this dreadful pile of great content I feel like I should get into and start discovering on my own. As soon as I can find that leap day, a secret un-committed 24 hours per week I can sneak into the calendar, maybe “Webday” can be inserted without much notice right before “Thursday”? In our conference, the platform that worked the best for pushing web video out in Elluminate ( as a web tour) was content from YouTube. So surprise at all consider their value measured in GoogleDollars. But is it easy to find educational content in YouTube? As category or tag, its a mixed bag as to what surfaces as “educational”. So enter a new site, TeacherTube which is [...]
Where the Twitters Are
Okay, so you are either hepped on twitter or think it is the dumbest thing since the Clapper. I’d use it more if it wasn’t so popular and bogged down lately. But twittervision makes for an interesting way to “watch” the tweets world wide. rather than seeing the flow of your local circle, you are watching disjointed pieces of conversation world wide… with each tweet geolocated on a Google Map. I made a short screen capture of a few tweets bouncing in from across the map [QuickTime clip 3.4 Mb] From what I understand, to geo-located a tweet, all you need do is to include in your message a code like “L:Phoenix, AZ” – I tried 2 tweets and watched the map, but never made it to the screen. It’s a little mesmerizing to sit back and watch, in the same way at LiveMarks you can watch in real-time what [...]
Jolly Well! Britain Gets in On Email Bank Spam Scam
Heck the Nigerians cannot hog the “I need your help transferring $25 million” email spams. Now the Brits are in it, and stomping in on Peanuts named characters: I am Mr. Charles Brown, A Canadian Attorney based in Manchester, United Kingdom and the personal attorney to Late Mr. Mark Michelle a citizen of France. Late Mr. Mark Michelle was a private oil consultant/ contractor with the Shell Petroleum Development Company in Saudi Arabia before his death, hereinafter shall be referred to as my client. Unfortunate, my client with his wife and three children lost their life in plane clash in 2003. My several attempts to locate any of his relatives as directed by his Bank became void. I had make enquires with his country Embassy and none of his relatives have been traced. It may interest you to know that my client died “in testate”. PROPOSITION: I decided to contact [...]
I’d Like to Buy a “U” (charging for free software)
Just for the one letter mistake of typing a URL, access to free software can land you on a site that charges for access to the same. I want to give a big thanks to Carolyn who emailed me this morning, about a bad link I had on a site more than a year old. For a wikispaces set of pages used for presentations on Podcasting, Schmodcasting…. What’s All the Hype? I had a link to Audacity – free audio editing software for Apple and Windows but rather than correctly linking to the Audactty site at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ I had dropped a “U” http://audacity.sorceforge.net/ which takes you to a membership site where you pay for access to downloading free software. After pulling my disgust back down my throat, I have to say that what this outfit does is “legal” in the technical sense- and on their FAQ they state: I thought [...]
